DAMIEN GERARD STUDIOS

Tell us about the his­tory of Damien Ger­ard Studios? 

This year marks 30 years under the tenure of Mar­shall Cullen. Damien Ger­ard Stu­dios is one of the old­est and most estab­lished stu­dios in Syd­ney. It was founded in 1982 by Luke “Ger­ard” Ever­ing­ham and Adam “Damien” Ever­ing­ham. The facil­ity began as one record­ing stu­dio and three rehearsal rooms in an Old Wool Store Ware­house in Ultimo. In 1985 Mar­shall Cullen and part­ners took over own­er­ship of the facil­ity. Dur­ing this time Rus­sell Pilling began his long stand­ing role as Chief Engi­neer after being trained by Mar­shall. Rus­sell is still cur­rently the Chief Engi­neer to this day. Over the next few years the rehearsal rooms here upgraded to record­ing. In 2001 The orig­i­nal Elec­tric Avenue build­ing on Mul­lens St in Bal­main (designed and built by Syd­ney Stu­dio Leg­end Phil Punch and home to The Church for many years) became avail­able, and Damien Ger­ard Stu­dios found a new per­ma­nent loca­tion. The premises now houses two rooms. The iconic Stu­dio A, which has one large live room and three sep­a­rate booths, as well as The Red Stairs Room, a mastering/mixing suite with a vocal booth.

Over the past 30 years, which esteemed engi­neers have you had come through the doors?

We’ve had David Trump,Tim Powles, Nick Lau­nay, Kevin Shirley, Ted Howard, John Bee, Charles Fisher, Wayne Con­nolly, Paul McK­ercher, Rob Younger, Simon Holmes, Nick Dal­ton, Les Karski, Mike Stavrou and Chris Tow­nend among others.

Over that time, which notable Inter­na­tional pro­duc­ers have worked in the stu­dios?

Jack Endino, Randy Jack­son, Skunk Bax­ter, Gus van Go, Adrian Break­s­pear, Steve James, Paul Palmer, Roger Frankham and Wayne Rivesy just to name a few.

Which artists have you had record at Damien Ger­ard Stu­dios?

Paul Kelly, Kate Miller Hei­dke, The Church, Hoodoo Gurus, Divinyls, Smudge, Mar­vin Priest, Four Play, Coda, Inxs, Yothu Yindi, The Cruel Sea, The Apart­ments, The Posies, John Den­ver, Mid­night Oil, Under­ground Lovers, Grin­spoon, Fren­zal Rhomb, Alex Lloyd, Evan Dando, Men­tal as Any­thing, Ed Keup­per, Noise­works, Steve Balbi, Died Pretty, Radio Bird­man, The New Christs, Rose Tat­too, Celi­bate Rifles and Maybe Dolls as well as many, many others.

What are your stu­dios dig­i­tal and/or ana­logue capa­bil­i­ties for record­ing?

We have facil­i­ties for both dig­i­tal and ana­logue record­ing. We can offer record­ing onto 2” Tape on an MCI JH24 and Pro Tools 10 Native Thunderbolt.

How many rooms does the stu­dio include and what are they ideal for? 

We have spaces that are per­fect for track­ing, mix­ing and mas­ter­ing. We have one main large live room that is big enough to track up to a 9 piece band which has three iso booths attached. We have one large con­trol and mix­ing room and also a mas­ter­ing suite with a voice over booth.

What record­ing gear is avail­able to use?

We have a lot of gear avail­able for use includ­ing a Main con­sole Sound­craft 2400 mid 80’s clas­sic ana­log 32/24. Our pre­amps include Neve, ATI, Gap­pre 73, API, BAE, Avedis, UA. Our comps include Urei, UA, DBX, AMEK, API, Neve Por­tico, Opti1A, Dra­mas­tic. Out­board EQ’s include Neve, JLM, ATI, and of course we have loads of plu­g­ins. We also have plenty of mics includ­ing NEUMAN, KM86, TLM103, Octava U87, AKG 451, D112, RODE Clas­sic 2 Tube, SHURESM7, Beta58A, SM57, SM58, SH55, Green Bul­let, Beta57A, BEYER M88, M201+Ribbons, ROYER Rib­bons, SENNHEISER MD421, AUDIO-TECHNICA AT4050, EVRE20, Stu­dio Projects Large DIA Tube, COLES 4038 rib­bon mics, SENNHEISER MD-441, BEESNEEZ ARABELLA, RADIAL JDV Class-A direct box and Great River DI / Preamp

Are there any instru­ments avail­able to use or hire whilst record­ing?

We have var­i­ous gui­tars and basses includ­ing Music Man. We have var­i­ous key­boards includ­ing an 88 key con­troller. There are var­i­ous amps includ­ing Vox AC30’s. There is a Lud­wig ‘John Bon­ham” style 4 piece kit. We have tonnes of ped­als, Line 6 pod and a per­cus­sion box. These are all free of charge with hire aside from the Lud­wig kit.

Who are your in-house engi­neers and what is their expe­ri­ence? 

We have Rus­sell Pilling. Russ has been engi­neer­ing for over 25 years and has worked with Hoodoo Gurus, Yothu Yindi, Noise­works, The Vines, Died Pretty, The Church and The Cruel Sea just to name a few artists. He has also engi­neered for plenty of esteemed inter­na­tional pro­duc­ers as well.

We also have Andrew Beck. He Started out in the intense music record­ing scene on the USA west coast through­out the 90’s. Andrew worked in var­i­ous capac­i­ties with the likes of Soundgar­den record­ing Supe­run­k­nown, Deli­cious Vinyl, Bad Ani­mals Stu­dios Seat­tle, Ocean Way Stu­dios and Trauma Records among oth­ers. Since relo­cat­ing to Syd­ney in 2000 he has worked with Paul Kelly (Mas­ter­ing), Kate Miller Hei­dke (Mas­ter­ing), The Sto­ics, Men­tal As Any­thing, Epi­cure, Grin­spoon, Josh Abrahams/Amiel Mar­vin Priest and lots more.

Then we have Pete Holz. He has com­pleted a mas­ters degree in acoustics at Syd­ney Uni­ver­sity and was one of the chief lec­tur­ers at The School of Audio Engi­neer­ing (SAE) and JMC Syd­ney. Pete joined the Damien Ger­ard Stu­dio team in 2005, and has since attended pres­tige courses such as a mix­ing work­shop with Michael Brauer (Cold­play) in South­ern France. Pete has become one of our most sought after engi­neers, pro­vid­ing world class clar­ity and qual­ity in his mixes.

Is there any­thing else that you’d like to tell us about?

The Stu­dio is in inner city Bal­main where cafes, bars and much more is only a walk away. There is an in house label that pro­vides con­sul­ta­tion, radio plug­ging and pro­mo­tion to selected clients as well as cd and vinyl man­u­fac­ture and dis­tri­b­u­tion if required.

Loca­tion: 174 Mul­lens Street Bal­main 2041
Hours of oper­a­tion: 7 days – 10am – 8pm
Phone: 02 9331 0666
Web­site: www.damiengerard.com.au
E-mail: [email protected]